Rola Rail Extreme DFE Series Roof Rack - Naked Roofs - 60" Long

Video Transcript for In-Depth Review of the DFE Series End Supports for Rola Rail Extreme Crossbars

Today we're gonna take a look at the line of Rola Rail Extreme DFE Series Roof Racks. Now these roof racks are gonna be made for naked roofs, meaning you don't have any raised side rails, you don't have any flush-mounted side rails, or fixed mounting points. You want a roof rack, but you need to have a fit kit to get it clamped onto your roof.This roof rack is gonna be custom fit for the contours of your roof. It's gonna be made up of a couple of different parts. Up top, we're gonna have our Rola Rail Extreme Crossbars, and these'll range in three different sizes from 47 inches to 53 inches and up to 60 inches, which is the size we have on our truck right now.And then connecting it is gonna be the Rola Rail End Supports. So we're gonna have the end supports with our custom fit kit on it.

In your kit, whatever vehicle you might have you're going to get the crossbar and the end support. Now, what's gonna be different is each custom fit kit, which includes this thick, rubber pad right here and then the rubber-coated hook is going to be different for every vehicle. And again, depending on the vehicle you have, you'll be able to get that certain custom fit kit.That pad is gonna sit below our end support and provide a nice cushion for our roof rack to be set on, and it's also gonna help protect the finish of our paint. And also this rubber-coated hook is gonna be, while durable, going to hold up well to the elements and it's going to, again, protect that finish, make sure no harm comes to it.Now if you have a truck like we do right here, your hooks are gonna be a little bit different, and I'll open up the door to show you. You see that it has more of that contoured look all the way down to the base of our doorframe.

Now other vehicles, like your sedans or crossovers, it's just gonna be one hook that goes under the doorframe right here. Well, with trucks it's a bit different. You gotta have this style hook that comes all the way down. You will have to pull down this weatherstripping if you have this style hook, just a little bit for that hook to get under the doorframe, and then you can push it back up. It's not gonna compromise the integrity of your weatherstripping, you're not gonna experience any leaks so you won't have to worry about that.Now again, I do really wanna point out that Rola did just go that extra step to to make sure that you have this custom fit pad and kit for your roof.

You can see how this pad lines up with the contours of our truck. You see it comes up on that slope, and then when it drops off back here, you can see that. And you saw the hook earlier, how it just lined up with contours of our truck frame, and that's just a very good step that Rola took to make sure that that roof rack stays secure and you get the most out of it.Now a little bit more about the crossbar is you're gonna have two of these low-profile crossbars. They have a nice, aerodynamic shape to them that's gonna cut down on wind noise and drag. Now something I just wanna make sure you understand is that when you put something on your roof, you are going to have a bit of that noise and drag, but when compared to a traditional square bar roof rack system, the aerodynamic shape is gonna help keep that to a minimum.

Now it's gonna be a lightweight, durable aluminum construction, which is also going to cut down on rust and it's gonna help resist that corrosion.Now we see we have these red pop locks right here on the end caps. Now basically what that's for is to help keep the end cap on. It's not gonna be the best theft deterrent, so if you want to, you can replace these with Rola Lock Cores which are sold separately here at Etrailer. You can get them in a pack of four or in a pack of eight. Now if we take the end cap off, we're gonna see that we can actually take out this rubber strip, and cut it to length for any T-track accessories we would like to utilize. That rubber strip in the top is also going to cover the channel and help really drag down that wind noise, make sure to keep it to a minimum.Now, the under part of our crossbar is gonna have this channel right here, which you can fill in with rubber strips that Rola includes in the kit to really just make sure that the wind doesn't catch in there and make a bunch of noise.Now with adding a roof rack to your vehicle, you wanna keep in mind that you are adding height to your vehicle. So if your vehicle does sit higher than normal, you are adding those few extra inches, which is something to keep in mind for any low clearance situations.Now we're also gonna have a 110 pound weight capacity for our roof rack, but do be sure to double check with your vehicle's owner's manual to make sure your roof can handle that weight.Now before we go, I'll show you guys a quick install. Now for whatever vehicle you might have, it may be a little different, but each crossbar is gonna be assembled the exact same way and you'll have different measurements in your instructions to be able to get it correctly on your roof. Just keep in mind that with a naked roof, there is specific spots where it needs to go, so just make sure you follow those directions and get those measurements right.Now like I said, we're just gonna start to assemble it. We have it partially assembled, so what we're gonna do is when your foot comes in, it's gonna have this cover on it. How we get that off we're just gonna flip up this kit tab right there, that's gonna loosen up the clamp on the inside. We can pull that off, and we don't necessarily need this anymore. You can keep it if you want, and put it back on your feet if you wanna disassemble your roof rack. But we'll set that aside.Now we're gonna grab our custom fit kit hook, and again, this'll be different for each vehicle. You wanna pay attention to the engravings that'll be right here. You might not be able to see it on camera right now, but if you hold it to a certain light you'll be able to see the markings. You wanna make sure you follow the instructions and make sure you get the hook on the specific side and front and passenger or driver's side, front or back of your car, 'cause it'll be custom fit to match the lining of your roof.Now what we can do is insert in that slot and just push up til it hooks in, like so. All right, we'll get the pad, and again with this pad you'll be able to see the markings. It's gonna be, right about there, you can see DF. Now, for our truck right here it's gonna be the same pad for each, the roof is not too different on the front and rear, so we're just gonna clamp this pad onto that bracket. You wanna push down til it folds over, like so.And now we're gonna go to the other side of our bar. We have this scale right here with the measurement. We have it set to the specific measurement in our instructions. So once you have that set we're just going to take this piece right here and slide it into the channel. Now if it gets to be tight at all, like you're struggling right here, just kinda wiggle this piece around a bit, and then that'll loosen it up and get it into the track. Now we're just gonna push it up until the end of that foot is touching the scale. You wanna go slow so you don't . as to not move the scale. So just go until it's making contact, like so. Now from there, we're just gonna lock it in place by pushing up on this tab. From there, we'll just put our end cap on, and then we're ready to put it on our roof.Now before we put it on the roof, I do wanna point out that each of our crossbars is gonna have this sticker that does say front, and it's pointing up. So we wanna make sure that this part of our crossbar is facing towards the front of our vehicle.Now, we'll just open up both of our doors. You wanna make sure you leave them open until your roof rack is tightened down all the way, and because we got a taller vehicle, I'm gonna go ahead and step up on the running board, and all we're gonna do is just get it roughly in place of where we're gonna need it to be. You wanna make sure you reach over, get that hook on the other side and pull back, like so. Set it in place. Now before we do anything else, we wanna measure our crossbar spread to make sure it's even on both sides. You can find this measurement in your instructions.Now really quick, I wanna point out how we got the front crossbar in place. I measured from the edge of my end support right here to the top of my windshield, and again, you can find that measurement in your instructions. It'll be different depending on the vehicle you have. Now when you have that all tightened down and in place, I'm gonna climb up here, and what we're gonna do is measure from center to center on our crossbar, and make sure we get that measurement on both sides to make sure that they're very parallel. Just got my tape right here I'm gonna use. Again, you can line it up with the little red lock right there, measure all the way to this side. Gonna have to go that way just a little bit . and then once you have that, make sure you get the same exact measurement on both sides, and it doesn't hurt to just go back and double check to make sure before you start tightening down.Now that we have our crossbar in place, we need to pull down the weatherstripping a bit to get our hook under the doorframe completely. And we also wanna make sure we install these foam bump stops, it's gonna go under the second part of our ridges right here, it's gonna sit there under our hook, and that's just gonna help protect the finish of your paint, just give some more support to it.Now for demonstration purposes, we're just gonna go ahead and leave this step out. I'll just give you an example, it's just, once you peel that backing off it's gonna have adhesive part on it, so you're gonna set it right there. So we're just gonna pull that out. Once you have that installed though, just . you don't have to pull the weatherstripping down all the way, you just need to pull down just enough for that hook to just get under there. So pull it down, just get it in place, like so, and then just push up on the stripping as far as you can. And repeat this process with the other side.Now with our included tightening tool, we can begin to tighten down our rear crossbar. We're just gonna use that Allen bolt right there. Just insert our tool and begin tightening. Now, what you're gonna wanna do is you don't want it to pull unevenly on either side. So we're just gonna give it a couple rotations, and then we're gonna go to the other side and then give that the same amount of rotations, and just make our way, working back and forth, making sure it's gonna pull evenly down on both sides. So we'll come back to when we get that done.Now this tool's actually gonna let you know when you have your roof rack tightened down to its correct torquing specifications. It's basically just gonna skip like it did right there to let you know, hey, don't tighten it down anymore, it's good. So when you've done that, just go 'head and close your end cap, and then once you do that, if you have just the regular plastic locks just to help them stay secure, we can lock or unlock like so.Now with all that being said, that's gonna do it for our look at the line of Rola Rail Extreme DFE Series Roof Racks.